The (headphone) cord comeback

Then, how to not puke in the car, thanks to a handy iOS and Android trick. And huge props to this week’s Old Thing submission for squeezing in not one but two of my favorite tech gadgets from 2006.

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“Hello!” says the man in the little box on my Microsoft Teams video call, pulling the dangling microphone on his wired earbuds closer to his mouth.

The man? Raza Haider, president of Bose’s premium consumer audio division. 

The earbuds? Bose’s Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds, which launched earlier this month and are selling faster than, well, you can untangle a headphone cord.

“What’s up with the cords?” I ask. It's why I called him in the first place.

“What’s up with the cords? You gotta ask the people demanding them!” he replies.

We all remember the big Bluetooth pitch: No more tangled cords! No more being tethered to our phones and computers like marionette puppets! Freedom! Except now people want their strings back.

Haider called the $99 wired earbuds a “runaway success,” with more of them selling within the first week than Bose had expected to sell in three months.

“We can’t keep this thing on our shelves,” he said. “We move mountains with our supply chain to get another 30,000 to 40,000 units and they last 24 hours.” Haider said another batch should be available online Friday (today). “Well, see how long this one lasts,” he added. As of publication Friday morning, black models were still in stock.

You haven’t accidentally time-traveled back to 2006. It’s 2026, and wired headphones are one of the hottest tech items of the year—for a few reasons. But mostly because headphone cords are awesome.

Nostalgia 

One quick search for “wired headphones” on TikTok showed me just how out of touch I am with this trend. Gen Z has developed a thing for simpler, pre-everything-is-tech, everything-is-AI times. They’ve shot up sales for digital cameras, vinyl records and now wired headphones.

It’s also hit celebrity culture. Dua Lipa sported wired headphones in Vogue and Sabrina Carpenter in a Skims ad. And it’s not just celebrities. I’ve been spotting more and more people wearing them on the streets of New York City, too.

Wired headphone sales grew 3% in 2025 after five straight years of declines, according to Circana market research. Everything old is new again. Except my lower back.

Simplicity 

But I don’t have nostalgia for wired headphones—mostly because I never stopped wearing them. I have simply prefered cords. They don’t need to be charged constantly, don’t randomly drop connections and often just sound better.

Haider says Bose embraced the cord after its research showed that people were longing for the simplicity of plugging something in and having it just work. Innovation!

Whenever I work at my laptop, I have a pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones plugged into the headphone jack. More recently, I’ve been testing the $349 Sonos Ace headphones, which have a USB-C to 3.5 mm cable for wired listening. Apple’s AirPods Max support wired playback, too, but of course if you want to plug into an actual headphone jack, that’ll be another $39!

And yet, ironically, this week Apple touted the headphone jack on its new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display. Yes, the same Apple that killed the headphone jack on the iPhone 7 back in 2016. Because…courage. (For the record, I’m perfectly happy with USB-C audio for the most part. I’m nostalgic for cords, not necessarily the holes they go into.)

Look, I’m not saying Bluetooth headphones don’t have their place. I use my AirPods Pro for running and taking calls. But when I’m sitting at my computer or on an airplane or train, nothing beats the reliability of a good old-fashioned wire.

I guess you could say, I was ahead of the...cord.

A little bonus from my Bose interview: Haider and I also talked about AI and how people are increasingly using earbuds to talk to AI assistants, not just other humans. (See our video from a few months ago on talking to AI via whisper earbuds.) Bose is embracing that shift, and Haider hinted at something interesting: “I’ll tease it without naming names, but we’re going to be doing a unique voice-based product for one of the largest frontier labs that will launch this year as well.” Any guesses? 

I started a company to cover new things, but becoming a payroll expert was NOT on the list. There are phones to fold and newsletters to write. Somewhere in there, people also need to get paid.

I’m already a Mercury customer, and as I look into payroll options, its new Mercury Payroll just shot to the top of my list.

It puts employee and contractor payroll right inside the Mercury account I already use. That means one login for banking and payroll, plus support for the less glamorous parts of running a company: payroll tax filings, state registrations and those government notices that never seem to arrive at a convenient time. Hiring across state lines? It supports all 50 states. 

Plus, a licensed broker can help you choose health, dental and vision plans and enroll each hire as you add them. 401(k) is available, along with HSA, FSA, ICHRA and commuter benefits. More time testing buttons. Less time chasing paperwork.

We’ve all been there. You’re in an Uber, scrolling on your phone when all of a sudden you feel like puking all over the backseat.

As Popular Science explains, motion sickness happens when your inner ear senses the car moving but your eyes are focused on something—a screen, a book, etc.—that isn’t. This mismatch makes you queasy, which is why looking out a window often helps. 

Apple and Google have a trick to help you keep your lunch down. Vehicle Motion Cues (iPhone) and Motion Assist (Android) place small dots on the side of your screen that move with the car, mimicking what’s happening outside. The idea is to give your eyes some of the motion cues your inner ear is already picking up. Less sensory confusion, less nausea.

Here’s how to turn it on:

Both operating systems allow you to have the dots always on or to turn them on automatically only when the phone senses you’re in a moving vehicle. I’ve been trying it lately on my iPhone and I really do think it makes a difference. 

Name: Rich Marmon

What's your old thing? Samsung SGH-i607 BlackJack 

What year is your old thing from? 2006

Why do you love your old thing? This phone was a true game changer back then and had cool commercials, too! The built-in keyboard in a slick form factor let you type messages easily. The screen and software let me watch live TV from my Slingbox, which was at home, while I was on the road. I used to amaze my friends with that.

Plus, it was a reliable phone as well. When the iPhone came out in 2007, I resisted it for years until it could let me watch my Slingbox. Finally, the iPhone 4 fit the bill in 2010, and I ditched my BlackJack. I sure miss the physical keyboard, though. I hope to recreate it with the upcoming Clicks Power Keyboard.

This newsletter was written and curated by Joanna Stern and Adele Lowitz.